


Ready, Aim, Fire

by Wierdowithagun



Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst, Betrayal, Blood, Cliche storylines, Crime, Death, Emotional, Gen, Guns, Hurt, Konan POV, Love, Songfic, Tragedy, mafia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-18
Updated: 2014-08-18
Packaged: 2018-02-13 18:19:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2160405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wierdowithagun/pseuds/Wierdowithagun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Akatsuki Mafia Songfic - Konan POV </p><p> "One by one... my brothers, my family, my everything... falling like dominoes before me with soul-shattering finality in their already dead eyes."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ready, Aim, Fire

  
_"With our backs to the wall, the darkness will fall. We never quite thought we could lose it all."_

 

One by one... my brothers, my family, my everything... falling like dominoes before me with soul-shattering finality in their already dead eyes. I can see the remnants of an emotion I'd never witnessed in any of them before as each of them turns to me, choking and bleeding, mouths agape in a silent apology, for failing to protect me.  
It's fear. Fear for the present, fear for the future, fear for their eminent death.. I don't know which. It's so foreign to see on them that I can hardly recognize it for what it is, let alone decipher it. But it is fear, I know it to be. I've seen it too many times on their and my victims alike not to be absolutely sure. I suppose it doesn't matter though, I should be much more concerned with the fact that everyone I love is dying around me.  
But it's haunting, seeing the freight in men I have always known to be fearless.  
The gunfire ceases, and I'm left standing there, staring wide-eyed and trembling, at the massacre before me. The pistol in my hands feels as if it's made of ice, I can't move my fingers enough to fire even a single revenge shot in their honor. I believe I may be crying, but I've never done it before, and I'm not sure if it's the tears making my eyes feel like they're about to burst from my skull, or the realization that everything I love has just been taken from me in that single instant, leaving me here like a leaky antique vase. Too broken to be of any use, but too pretty and valuable to be thrown away.  
I hear the distant clicks of guns being reloaded, I can see the glimmer of the steel from the corners of my eyes as they're raised toward me again. I hear the muffled command to relinquish my weapon, to 'Put down the gun and surrender, and you will be spared.'  
I can't tear my eyes away from my brothers, and the love of my life staring up and through me, as if I weren't even here. I can't look away from their blood pooling the ground, baffling me with it's dark crimson. How could all their blood look the same? Mixing and blending into one big puddle, no separation between what once inhabited their bodies.  
Everything. Gone.  
Everything we'd built, everything we'd put our sweat, and blood, and life into. Everything we'd stood for, all the plans we had made, all the sacrifices we'd given...  
And more than that. Everything we'd accomplished, all the memories we'd shared, the home we had built from it's very foundation.. The fame and power and glory were one thing. But the love...  
The love was gone.  
There was nothing left.

  
_"An empire's fall in just one day. You close your eyes and the glory fades. Ready, aim, fire. Ready, aim, fire away!"_

 

We had it all. Anything and everything that anyone could have asked for. We started small, and remained small, the key that led us to blowing past all the other big families of crime. We worked for the higher power, giving us that extra something that they all lacked, allowing us to excel above the rest.  
We had the power. What the Akatsuki wanted, the Akatsuki got. You did not ask questions, you did not protest, because you knew that unless it was necessary, they would not take it from you. And if you did not please us, you died.  
Fame was ours as well. Everyone knew who we were, the band of misfits that single-handedly ran the town. That one small percentage that somehow had it all figured out, that could take down any adversary, that could commit horrible, terrible crimes, and yet still receive respect from those both above and below us. Citizens hated and feared us, law enforcement despised us, our peers wished for nothing more than a slow torturous death for each of our members. But the respect was still there. The Akatsuki were not to be meddled with or taken lightly unless you were brainless or suicidal.  
And money, it was never an issue. Most of us couldn't have cared less about the money. As long as we had the necessities, the excess could be thrown out onto the streets for all we cared. Every human is born of greed, and of course we enjoyed having the luxuries that others didn't. We splurged occasionally, yes, spent and extra penny on ourselves, but always within reason.  
It had all come naturally, stemming off from our individual goals. Some of us wanted truth, other's wanted peace, some of us just wanted to have a purpose. I've always found it ironic that the pursuit of these things often left the exact opposite in their wake, but it's a hard truth that we all understood without discussion. Order cannot exist without chaos, just as love cannot exist without hatred.  
It was a difficult road we paved, and a hard earned title we won in accordance with it, one that caused the deaths of many, many good people. But that's how things go in this way of life, it's all just business, whether the death is physical or emotional.

 

_"Off in the distance, There is resistance, bubbling up and festering."_

 

I don't mean to make us out to be heroes, we were far from it. Beneath each of our human skins was a monster, blood-thirsty, demonic, and utterly void of compassion. The acts we nonchalantly carried out, the crimes we committed, were nightmaric. There was blood, death, and suffering no matter which way we looked. We were damned to hell thousands of times individually, and it had become 'our thing' to salute those who did it, a silent agreement we were all in, a promise to meet together again in the bowels of hell when we each met our end.  
No, as humans, we were bad, evil to the core, no matter the intentions or outcomes. And though we knew this, it was hard to care. You see, it was the one thing we all had in common, the thing that bound us so strongly together.  
We had only each other.  
Nothing else mattered, not a single thing. And only our family could bring out the small trace of goodness left in each others souls.  
And so, when I tell you we had everything, it was not an exaggeration. The usual tangible rewards were reaped of course, and the power and fame did go to our heads subconsciously, but it was the love that kept us grounded, kept our heads on straight. It kept us from making the mistakes so many of our peers made, the thing that kept us alive when anyone else would have been dragged out in a body bag. Together we were invincible, we fueled each other, radiating off each other like a circle of generators, each powering the other, and endless supply of vitality and life. We created our own world, and even though it was based off crime, and death, destruction, and suffering of others, it was beautiful to us. It was perfect, and we were happy.  
And that of course is where the scales were tipped off balance. Where others grew jealous, and wrathful. People like us don't deserve fulfillment, evil incarnate is not allowed to be happy. Not ever.

 

_"Hey Mister Motion, make me a potion, shake it all up with your mystery."_

 

There were ten of us, originally. An even and sturdy number. Absolutely unheard of in our profession as well, to have such a small family.  
People die every day, in this business. Members are constantly having to be replaced, like pawns, they only existed to protect the king. Mourning loved ones left behind did not matter, and the chaos that ensued when those loved ones decided to pursue their ideals of revenge always seemed an an unnecessary component to us. It only complicated, and left a messy trail for whomever wanted to, to follow.  
We ten were utterly alone in the world before our forces joined, and when we bound together and became one family, sworn to protect and serve each other, we tossed away the need for underlings and messy things, and replaced it with the strength that kept all of us miraculously alive.  
Until November 21st, 13 years after the Akatsuki's birth, our record remained unbroken.  
I don't think any of us ever managed to, or wanted to, delve deep enough into the occasion to find out the details of what really happened. All that is really set in stone is that that day our number went from an unbreakable, solid ten, to a feeble, one-legged nine.  
It's a terrible thing in any family when a members life is taken unnaturally. It is a regular occurrence in this industry, but our small number was supposed to ensure a long life for all of us. And in our minds, when it is the most innocent that is taken, the 'younger' brother to us all, that we would all protect with our lives. When it is him that takes our baggage and pays for our sins... that is a declaration of war.  
None of us really knew how old Tobi was. Things like that didn't matter to us, I couldn't tell you most of my brother's ages. I couldn't tell you their education level, or their family history. It was useless information.  
But we knew he died young. Far too young.  
He was everything that the rest of us were not. Just as demonic, but with innocence. Tobi was the only one among us who had never taken a life, and the rest of us put everything we had into making sure that he never had to. He handled the more delicate affairs, and stayed off of the streets. On the occasions when he did have to go out, he was armed only for self-defense, and even then he'd never needed it.  
With a mind that was stuck somewhere in the transition between child and man, we all thought fondly of him as our 'little brother', even though all of us wanted to throttle him on more than one occasion. He was sweet, and thoughtful, while still able to withstand the demands of our lifestyle, able to be serious and just as foreboding as any of the rest of us should the time call for it. His trick was the thing that everyone knew him for. On the scant missions he was called out on, he would wear a mask with nothing but one hole to see out of, he would not speak, and would move only when it was neccessary. Having only the one eye, he claimed that 'at least half his soul would stay untainted'. By not speaking, he said that he did not technically participate. In his own warped mind, it helped him remain the innocent Tobi we all knew and loved while still being able to carry out the gruesome tasks expected of us.  
And this was the most infuriating aspect of his death. That it was him who had to fall when the rest of us were stained so much throughly with the blood of others. Any of us would have gladly taken his position, and it would have been easier to understand. I don't know if a war was his intention when he set out to the streets alone that day, or if his inner-child did not recognize the danger. Either way, I suppose it does not matter now.

 

_"How come I never seen your face 'round here? I know every single face 'round here."_

 

A man named Madara took his place, after we had begrudgingly decided that the Akatsuki indeed needed a stable ten members to continue on. It is clear now why none of us could ever get ourselves to care for him, but at the time, I think we had all just attributed it to Tobi's absence. Nothing can replace a brother.  
We were all on a team against him, it seemed, even when we were united. Personally, I had nothing against the man, I just did not care to care for him. He struck me as a pawn, a replacement, the very thing we had wanted to avoid when first constructing our family.  
Each of us had our own special place in the organization, and Madara simply did not fit into Tobi's. Instead, I took over his position handling the inner cogs of our small Mafia. Being the only woman in the family, it stood to reason in our stereotypical minds that I was the 'second youngest'. Though not thought of as a child much like Tobi was, I was the only sister, and therefore the highest priority that needed the most protection.  
So I moved into Tobi's place, and Madara took mine, and within a week my brothers were at each other's throats.

 

_"Man on a mission, changing the vision. I was never welcome here."_

 

Nagato, though I include him in the group with my brothers, is admittedly more to me. Though I don't think he ever knew. He was also the designated leader of our small mafia, the King-pin of Akatsuki.  
If there were anyone in this world that could rightfully proclaim themselves without fear, it would be him.  
He went by the pseudonym Pain, for strategical, metaphorical, and personal reasons alike. Everyone knew Pain, and everyone knew he was the closest thing to untouchable that there was. Because pain, though it can kill you, drive you mad, and ruin your life, is not a tangible being. He was nothing more than a spectre, and I was his angel of death.  
I grew up with him, and we two were the closest in our brotherhood, though to the naked eye there was no emotional connection at all. Pain founded the Akatsuki, and I was the very first member, everyone else followed after, each of them joining for their own reasons, and eventually sucked in by the gravity of the promises we made to each other without words. It turned itself from a simple job oppurtunity to a way of life in all of our eyes, and I think we would all be equally confused if you asked us how we managed to survive before becoming members.  
His vision started with good intentions, as most evils do. Growing up as we did, as most of my brothers did, injustices had become a normal part of life, accepted without a second thought. He seeked to change this, and by becoming the very thing we were trying to defeat, he believed we could make a better life for at least a portion of the city. That we could rule differently, without the corruption but with a fist just as iron-clad. And I think that is what we were, hated but loved, somewhere between saviors and tyrants.

 

_"We don't have a choice to stay, we'd rather die than do it your way."_

 

Madara had a different way of doing things. It blindsided my brothers, leaving them too shocked and confused to protest. But come the second mission, When Madara, and my most mal-tempered of brothers', Hidan and Deidara, were sent out together, it became clear that the Akatsuki was falling apart.  
Pain's dream had lasted only those few short years, the death of Tobi brought on the slaughter of our entire family. So connected were we that having even one peg fall from it's hole sent everyone into hysteria.  
The three turned on each other somewhere along the lines, not only did they not accomplish their objective, but they let the knowledge out into the public that our family now had a weak link. That even though our numbers said ten, we were slowly decomposing into nothing more than a group of individuals, each on a separate path we believed would lead us back to happiness.  
I say that Tobi's death started it all, and while this is true, while it left a terrible wound in our family, it was ultimately Madara who killed us.

 

_"Back in the casing, shaking and pacing. This is the tunnel's light."_

 

Constant fighting erupted between us. our well-oiled machine began to collapse in upon itself. It leaked out into the open, where even those with only half a brain could see it. My brothers broken hearts hardened with each of those instances, each time it was proven that we could never see eye-to-eye again, that we were a broken thing that could never be fixed, that we could never feel complete again.

 

_"Blood in the writing, stuck in the fighting. Look through the rifle's sight."_

 

We changed, as people. Our system was disrupted, and we each became separate again, with all our own wants and desires. We grew bitter, and from the bitterness sprouted selfish greed, the need to ensure our own happiness and sabotage every one else's. We started taking more than we needed, killing for fun, placing our faith and ideals in things that made no rational sense, all as a way to avoid feeling any more pain.  
It was clear that we were falling apart, and as time marched on, oblivious to our slow demise, we knew, each of us, at the end of the day, that we were dying.

 

_"How come I've never seen your face 'round here?. I know every single face 'round here"_

 

The world started striking back against us. We lost the respect that we spent a decade and then some building up. We lost the fear, we lost everything. Madara stayed there with us through it all. He put on such a good act, even managing to bring tears to his eyes when he tried to comfort us all with tales of our past on the occasions we would turn on each other. We didn't accept him, he still was, and always would be, and outsider. He couldn't comprehend the sorrow we felt, having part of us stripped away. But, he remained there with us through this time. He didn't turn and run despite the fact that it was obvious we were falling apart, despite our days being so clearly numbered for all of us to see. Despite our outlook being so dark and bleak that we no longer cared that we were killing ourselves.

 

_"Here in the heckle, holding the shackle. I was never welcome here."_

 

Finally the day came, when we all would finally meet our ends, though we didn't yet know it. At the time we thought perhaps we had found a miracle cure, that our vigor had come back, that finally the missing gear to our indestructible machine had returned to us. Madara was taken during a mission, captured in an elaborate trap by one of the newly emerged gangs seeking the glory that we had once had.  
My brothers were infuriated, insulted, and even more so, unwilling to let another, even an outsider like Madara, be taken from them. We were all in agreement, we had suffered enough embarrassment, enough loss. Everything that we once were had been taken from us in one stupid little act of clan war. Nothing more than a warning signal had killed our most innocent member. We had run these streets for two decades now, we were the king's, and we were tired of the slow deterioration. This was the final straw.  
And with pride and contentment my bothers and I all agreed wordlessly with each other, with nothing more than the faintest of smiles and a nod to assure each other that we would go about this rescue mission the way it out to be. We would reclaim our solid, sturdy ten, and strike fear once again into anyone trying to destroy what we had worked for.  
We were one thing, once again. And it felt so good, so right, to us all, that we wondered why it had taken so long for use to reunite. With that stable feeling in our hearts, the profound trust resurrected between us, we felt invincible, and thus, saddled up to ride straight into our doom.

 

  
_"We don't have a choice to stay. We'd rather die than do it your way."_

 

 

I hear the distant clicks of guns being reloaded, I can see the glimmer of the steel from the corners of my eyes as they're raised toward me again. I hear the muffled command to relinquish my weapon, to 'Put down the gun and surrender, and you will be spared.'  
I can't tear my eyes away from my brothers, and the love of my life staring up and through me, as if I weren't even here.  
Footsteps come bouncing into my ears, from my right, echoing unrealistically in the silence and shock I'm currently wrapped in, shaking like a leaf in a tree. I can't think, I can't process thoughts, I just keep hearing it again and again, They're gone They're gone They're gone They're gone, without pause. The blood, their blood, my brothers, my family, it all around me. I'm watching it pool beneath me, I can feel it there under my boots, as if it were climbing up my body, consuming me. Their eyes won't look away, each of them staring endlessly, dull and lifeless, like a foggy window on an empty house...  
A voice speaks to me, says my name, puts a hand on my shoulders, tell me to put the gun down. I know that voice...  
Nagato, Kakuzu, Zetsu, Deidara...  
Put down the gun, they say, and you will be spared.  
Itachi, Hidan, Sasori, Kisame...  
'Spared from what?' I ask them back. I know that voice, I knew it well. Without looking, I could hear it, I could hear both of them, both voices combining into one.

Tobi ... Madara...

  
  
_"With our backs to the wall, the darkness will fall. We never quite thought we could lose it all."_

 

They're gone They're gone They're gone They're gone... I turned around, first to look at the hand on my shoulder, to trail up the arm of the bleached white suit, such a contrast from mine. It was stained so heavily with my brother's blood that it would hardly be recognizable as white. From the arm to the shoulder, from the shoulder to a chin, mouth, nose, eyes, hair... and a mask on top of his head. Tobi's mask.  
The peices connected instantly, despite how I fought for denial. I was sure, right then and there that it was no ploy or trick, that this was happening. That my brothers were not only gone, that they had not only been stolen from me, but that they had been taken by a brother as well.

  
_"Ready, Aim, Fire! Ready, Aim, Fire!"_

  
It took no more understanding, no more explanation. There's no possible way to describe to those who don't instantly comprehend. The pain of being wronged so horribly, of loving another so much more than yourself, yet having to stand there and watch while they were killed mercilessly by the very soul that had devastated them. A man without fear is a man so loyal to his family, he knows harm will never befall them. A man without a fear is a man so stabilized by love that no matter of being good or bad can ever catch up to him. A man without fear is a man who would never see that love being his downfall.

 

_"An empire's fall in just one day. You close your eyes and the glory fades."_

 

One by one... my brothers, my family, my everything... fallen before me with finality in their dead eyes. I can see the remnants of an emotion I'd never witnessed in any of them before they lay there, mouths agape in a silent apology, for failing to protect me.  
It's fear. Fear for the present, fear for the future, fear for their eminent death... I don't know which. It's so foreign to see on them that I can hardly recognize it for what it is, let alone decipher it. But it is fear, I know it to be. I've seen it too many times on their and my victims alike not to be absolutely sure.  
But... I'm not afraid. Because that was the solution. It was laid out right there before me for all to see, a message left as if intentional.  
I met his eyes again, and I smiled. He smiled back, and the ice melted from my gun. I felt everything so strongly then, saw what lay before me and my brothers and my love... And I was overcome with the the unexplainable beauty of it all that I think maybe, in those last moments, I did cry. Not from fear, not from loss, not from sadness, but from true bliss.

  
_"Ready, aim, fire. Ready, aim, fire away!_   
_FIRE!_   
_Ready, aim, fire. Ready, aim, fire away!"_

  
The barrel of the gun no more than touched him before the blood poured out. Again and again I squeezed that trigger, even after the shouts rang out from the unfamiliar men around us, even after the fire exploded into multiple parts of my body. I smiled at him, at Tobi, at Madara, my beloved 'younger' brother and the distrustful outsider, even as his eyes went wide, even as his mouth fell open in silent question.  
Together in life, and together in death. All at once. So connected me and my brothers were. My family, my everything. All of us, all ten, there, in the end, all at once. It was beautiful, and I was happy.

 We were pioneers. We were royalty. We were untouchable. We send a message wherever we go, we demand respect from every living soul. We take only what we need, we keep the balance, criminal heroes. And even in death, we are a work of art, forever cemented into time, into memory, into souls. Because love never really dies. And when it does, it dies beautifully.

We are Akatsuki.

 

_"With our backs to the wall, the darkness will fall. We never quite thought we could lose it all. Ready, aim, fire, ready, aim, fire. An empire's fall in just one day. You close your eyes and the glory fades. Ready, aim, fire, ready, aim, fire away (fire!)_   
_Ready, aim, fire, ready, aim, fire away..."_

**Author's Note:**

> So this was something I started a very long time ago and never got around to finishing. Suffering writers block here recently, I've decided to force myself to finish it. I don't know how satisfied I am with it, and I'd love to hear feedback. :)  
> Thanks for reading.
> 
> The song used is 'Ready, Aim, Fire' by Imagine Dragons, hence the title.


End file.
